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Topic: Embarrassed I spent money onů.. (Read 64698 times)

I was in Mary Kay for awhile. When it came to selling, I found out that I couldn't sell $10 for $1 so I got out of it. I sank about $300 into it for the case, etc. but I learned a lesson so it wasn't a complete waste.

My parents got into time shares a few years ago. My mom did a lot of research beforehand because she knew it was easy to get in over one's head and felt she would be able to keep up with the deadlines and rules. They have gotten use out of it, but even with all her vigilance it's still been a pain to deal with some things, and I'm not sure whether it's actually benefited them over just arranging their trips independently.

A friend of mine got involved in a cosmetics-selling program. I don't think it's a scam and I know people who've done well out of it, but you have to have some business savvy, and she didn't. She spent several thousand dollars upfront for the deluxe package and spent the next few years selling off items at a loss, one lipstick at a time.

My parents have had their timeshare for 35 years and love it -- mostly because they have used one of those exchange services, RCI, to trade their timeshare for other destinations/times. If you really love a destination and want to keep going back, and like the predictability of taking your vacation at the same time every year, I think it can be a better option than hotels. A big thing to really consider beyond cost and annual fees is the size and amenities over many years -- if a young couple gets a timeshare that is perfect for the two of them, will it still be great if they have kids? If a family of 5 gets one that fits all of them, will it still be great when the kids are grown and it's just the parents?

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"A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools." Ś Douglas Adams

I was in Mary Kay for awhile. When it came to selling, I found out that I couldn't sell $10 for $1 so I got out of it. I sank about $300 into it for the case, etc. but I learned a lesson so it wasn't a complete waste.

I spent $100 hard earned dollars on the MK case. I never sold a thing and it sat in my closet for years.

I bought the entire original series Star Trek on video tape. (One of those deals where they send you 2 tapes every month and charge a ridiculous amount of money. They are still taking up an entire book shelf, most unopened. And I don't have a video player anymore.

Want to buy another set?

I have ST:TNG on DVD. Along with every Star Trek movie.

The ST:TNG dvd's are in the drawer above the Original Series tapes. The movies are on both VHS and DVD; can I interest anyone in some Star Trek plates? (it's a sickness I tell you)

I loaded my Sony with all of my books in one go. No need to add in batches. Now I load books 1 by 1, but I've never had a problem with loading a super large amount.

Are you loading with Calibre or with the Sony reader software?

The Sony software and trying to follow one of their tech's instructions.

I gather that Calibre works better?

Much much better

PM me and I can walk you through it if you need help

I'm currently converting some books to a different format - I got tired of being told that .doc and .pdf might not work on my Nook HD+. I might as well get ALL of them set up in .epub before doing the transfer to both. One thing about the older Alurarek Libre Pro (besides the lower price and smaller size) is that .epub, .pdf, .doc, .prc, .mobi, .txt, and .rtf all seem to work just fine and so does drag & drop. It is a Linux reader and really does seem to be almost goof proof.

. . . can I interest anyone in some Star Trek plates? (it's a sickness I tell you)

Oof, I forgot about the Star Trek plates. I can forgive myself the Beanie Babies, because I never expected to get rich off of them, and they are still cute in small batches (I rotate the display.) The Hallmark Christmas Ornaments are harder to justify since I don't normally put up a large Christmas tree. But what was I thinking when I bought the Star Trek collector plates? Currently they are collecting dust up in the attic. When/if I ever move out of this house, I may leave the plates behind in a corner, just to bemuse future owners.

When I was a kid, one year for Christmas I got some special-edition Barbie. I was instructed to put it up on the shelf and not play with it, so that it would increase in value. I practiced excellent self control for several months, even though her dress was sooo pretty. One day, I was bored and decided to open it. The reaming I got for opening that package! I never even got the Barbie out; it was taken away and carefully glued back together before going back up on a shelf.

Ten or so years later, my mother finally sold it. At a garage sale. For $1.

PSA: If you want to buy a toy in hopes of it increasing in value, don't give it to your child for Christmas and expect them to never, ever play with it.

Yeah. Don't do that.

I first became aware of the Beanie Babies when my DDs were each gifted one (of the same kind, white polar bears.) I dutifully tore off the tags. Giftee was somewhat horrified.

Giftee: You just completely destroyed any possible value by tearing off the tags.

Me: What value? They're toys. I'm not going to give them to the DDs to play with when they still have the tags on them.

Giftee: Well, you really weren't supposed to give them to the DDs to play with.

Me: Then why did you give them to the DDs?

Giftee : You don't know about Beanie Babies, do you?

I still didn't get it. You give a toy to a child and don't expect them to play with it? Didn't make sense to me.

Sure enough, when the craze was at it's highest, I saw a price list and this specific polar bear was bidding out at over $1,600.

The problem with buying toys hoping that they'll be very valuable some day is that it takes great self control not to actually open the box or clip the tags, and it can't really be used and enjoyed without losing it's value.

When I was a kid, one year for Christmas I got some special-edition Barbie. I was instructed to put it up on the shelf and not play with it, so that it would increase in value. I practiced excellent self control for several months, even though her dress was sooo pretty. One day, I was bored and decided to open it. The reaming I got for opening that package! I never even got the Barbie out; it was taken away and carefully glued back together before going back up on a shelf.

Ten or so years later, my mother finally sold it. At a garage sale. For $1.

PSA: If you want to buy a toy in hopes of it increasing in value, don't give it to your child for Christmas and expect them to never, ever play with it.

Heh, my parents got me the special edition Millennium Barbie and told me it was as a (future) collector's item and not to open it. Of course I was 25 at the time so ... It does in fact still reside on a closet shelf in my old room at their house and will probably be kept for my DD (again not to play with, to allegedly offset college costs or something).

I didn't collect Beanie Babies myself although I probably have a dozen (they're so cute!). I even own a couple that were eventually considered high value during the big boom. I did have a friend who avidly collected them, the Teenies, and every special edition you could think of - she had a booth at a couple of trade shows to buy/sell but not sure she ever made any money on them. She was really passionate about it at the time, I kind of hope she doesn't regret the investment now. If nothing else, her toddler son probably has the best stuffed animal zoo around!

I have two special edition Millennium Barbies in my office now. They were found above the ceiling tiles in the supermarket we are renovating into the library. We checked, still not much value. I'm hoping is another decade we can pawn them off on someone...I mean find them a special home .

The problem with buying toys hoping that they'll be very valuable some day is that it takes great self control not to actually open the box or clip the tags, and it can't really be used and enjoyed without losing it's value.

When I was a kid, one year for Christmas I got some special-edition Barbie. I was instructed to put it up on the shelf and not play with it, so that it would increase in value. I practiced excellent self control for several months, even though her dress was sooo pretty. One day, I was bored and decided to open it. The reaming I got for opening that package! I never even got the Barbie out; it was taken away and carefully glued back together before going back up on a shelf.

Ten or so years later, my mother finally sold it. At a garage sale. For $1.

PSA: If you want to buy a toy in hopes of it increasing in value, don't give it to your child for Christmas and expect them to never, ever play with it.

Heh, my parents got me the special edition Millennium Barbie and told me it was as a (future) collector's item and not to open it. Of course I was 25 at the time so ... It does in fact still reside on a closet shelf in my old room at their house and will probably be kept for my DD (again not to play with, to allegedly offset college costs or something).

I didn't collect Beanie Babies myself although I probably have a dozen (they're so cute!). I even own a couple that were eventually considered high value during the big boom. I did have a friend who avidly collected them, the Teenies, and every special edition you could think of - she had a booth at a couple of trade shows to buy/sell but not sure she ever made any money on them. She was really passionate about it at the time, I kind of hope she doesn't regret the investment now. If nothing else, her toddler son probably has the best stuffed animal zoo around!

(I admit I still feel weird about taking the tags off them.)

I looked up your Millennium Barbie on eBay. Seems the going rate is around $20. My "collectible" Teen Talk Barbie (I didn't get a "math is tough!" one because it'd already been pulled from the shelves -- but my dad couldn't resist the urge to buy one with hope of getting money someday) seems to be $20-$40. Too bad my cousins whose mom wouldn't let them have Barbies because they were "inappropriate for children" tore the head off mine!

My best friend from childhood AND her parents were big Beanie collectors. They drove around to all the McDonald's to get the "rare" ones and were subscribers to the magazines. I never quite understood it because all they did was buy, never sell! They were collectors in general, though, so maybe that's it.

When Gish and I first got together we made a special date night dinner, complete with these special potatoes you could bake in the microwave, for only $1 each! What a deal! I think it was Scritzy who pointed out that any potato could be baked in the microwave. I still laugh about that one sometimes. We were so proud of ourselves and our special potatoes.

In your defense the special potatoes tend to be bigger and "fresher" than the regular ones (at least in my grocery store)

I'm not sure how a potato can be "fresher". They're picked once a year and stored in bunkers. Unless things have changed drastically in the years since I worked the potato fields in SE Idaho.

I guess they could be "hot house" potatoes...grown indoors under climate and light controlled conditions?

I could be using the wrong terminology. The "special" potatoes always seem to be consistant in size and texture when at the same time the "regular" potatoes might be much smaller and/or have soft spots.

Potatoes, in particular the russet potatoes that Idaho is famous for, end up varying a great deal in size. The "baked potato" setting on many microwaves would be for a specific size. So, maybe they're the ones that are that meet that *standard*?

I honestly don't know. They did come pre-wrapped in plasic wrap and had microwaving directions on the side.

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It's alright, man. I'm only bleeding, man. Stay hungry, stay free, and do the best you can. ~Gaslight Anthem

I currently own 80+ Beanie Babies. I never considered them to be an investment, it was just cool and fun getting up at 5 am to go stand in line at the mall with other weird people in the hopes of getting one of the shipments! In 1999 (so at the height of the insanity), my mom and I were rummaging through a bin of Beanies at a Hallmark store and I found a "Wallace" bear. I was excitedly showing my mom what I'd found when a lady next to me tries to snatch it from me, proclaiming that she'd seen a bit of his scarf first, and therefore it was hers! I gave her a "you have got to be crazy" look, and went up to the register to pay immediately.

I am, however, embarrassed to admit that I spent $40 on a special blue bear Beanie for my mom (all sealed up in a plastic crate). My mom ended up giving her whole collection to me about three years later, because she really didn't like Beanies anymore...